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This article is about the first movie. For other uses, please see Ice Age (disambiguation).
Ice Age
Ice Age (2002) Poster
Film Information
Director Chris Wedge
Producer Lori Forte
Writer Michael J. Wilson
Michael Berg
Music David Newman
Release Date March 15, 2002
Run Time 82 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $59,000,000
Gross $383,257,136
Rating PG
Followed By Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
Gallery


"They'll answer the call of the wild. And they'll boldly go where no mammal has gone before. The story of four strangers who go from Sub-Zero to heroes."
―Tagline[src]

Ice Age was released on March 15, 2002[1] as an American computer-animated fantasy-comedy-drama adventure film directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha. It is the first of five films released in the Ice Age series, made by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

The film is set during the days of the ice age; animals begin migrating south to escape the winters. Once Manny, a no-nonsense mammoth, meets Sid, a loudmouthed ground sloth, and the two find a human baby named Roshan, they set out to return the baby. Joining them is a saber-tooth tiger named Diego, who is commanded by his pack leader, Soto, to bring the baby to him to enact revenge against the humans.

The film received generally positive from critics and audiences alike. The film was a box office success, earning $383 million worldwide against its $59 million budget. The film won several film awards, including an Academy Award nomination.

Synopsis

Prologue

Ice Age - Migrating through Glacier Pass

The migration begins when the animals of the Pleistocene head south to their new home,

The film starts when a saber-toothed squirrel named Scrat, attempts to find a place to store his acorn for the winter. Eventually, as he tries to stomp it into the ground, he inadvertently causes a large crack to form in the ice that extends for miles before setting off a large avalanche which nearly crushes him. He barely escapes but finds himself getting stepped on by a herd of prehistoric animals migrating south in order to escape the forthcoming ice age.

Manny meets Sid

"You have beautiful Eyes" - Sid to Manny

Sid embraces Manny's trunk.

"We make a great team. What do you say we head south together?"
―Sid[src]

A surly mammoth named Manfred and a enthusiastic ground sloth named Sid refuse to join the migration for the ice age. Abandoned by his family, Sid attempts to migrate alone but runs afoul of his two rhinos best friends named Carl and Frank, who try to attack Sid but fail due to Manfred stepping in, only to leave Sid behind afterward. Sid stays with Manfred, referring to the mammoth as “Manny”, for protection, much to Manny’s dismay.

A tribe of humans camp near a waterfall, among them their leader, named Runar, with his wife Nadia and their infant son Roshan, before heading north to their settlement in the mountains. Soto, leader of a pack of saber-tooth tigers, watches the humans with his trusted lieutenant, a cat named Diego. Soto, seeking revenge against the humans for wiping out half of his pack, intends to devour Runar’s son Roshan in vengeance and plans an attack for the next morning. The attack takes place, with Diego pursuing Nadia, but she escapes with Roshan, jumping over the waterfalls so that Diego returns to Soto with no baby, making Soto furious; Soto tells Diego that he will give him a chance to bring the baby to Half Peak where his pack will be waiting and if he failed again, Soto would kill Diego instead.

Returning the Baby

"I'll help you take it to its herd. But promise me you'll leave me alone after that."
―Manny[src]
Manny & Sid at Riverbank

Manfred & Sid finds Naida wounded with her son, Roshan, on the river bank.

Manny and Sid journey on, Manny bothered by the sloth's constant talking, until the two find Nadia on a riverbank, weakened greatly by her jump over the falls, with hardly enough strength to pass her son to Manny before she disappears. Manny leaves, but Sid intends to return the baby to his "herd", which Manny will not help with. The two meet Diego, who takes the baby, claiming that he intends to return him to the humans. Manny, unconvinced, decides to help Sid return the baby to his family, leaving the saber behind; the humans' camp is abandoned and Manny reluctantly decides to head north to find the humans’ settlement at Glacier Pass and return the baby, taking Diego along as a guide.

The trio take the baby up north and meet a fanatical flock of dodos on the way, from which they procure food for the baby. During the trek, however, Diego secretly meets up with two of his pack mates, who pass a message from Soto, demanding the baby; Diego sends them back with a message to Soto, promising the baby and Manny. The following morning, Sid takes the baby to a mud crater, where he meets two female sloths named Jennifer and Rachel, who he tries to court using the baby, which Manny takes back; Sid returns to the mud crater, only to find the sloths gone, Carl and Frank in their place. The rhinos pursue Sid, who runs into Diego and pleads to the saber to deter the rhinos: Diego pretends to have killed Sid to throw the rhinos off the trail and releases his grip once the rhinos leave; Diego then moves on with Manny and Sid. On the way, the group runs into a number of predicaments, from a changing landscape to freezing ice age blizzards. The group meets a saber-tooth squirrel named Scrat, who had seen a pack of sabers go by and tries to tell Manny before Diego surreptitiously flicks Scrat away.

Shortcut

Sid & Roshan look at cave art

Sid shows Roshan some cave paintings.

"This time tomorrow, you could be a free mammoth. Or a nanny; personally, I never get tired of peek-a-boo."
―Diego[src]

Further on, Diego spots the humans close by and suggests a shortcut to waylay Manny and Sid to an ambush point; this shortcut takes them through an ice cavern which leads to a cave adorned with paintings, all featuring animals. Among the paintings is the image of a mammoth family, hunted by humans, which Manny views, revealing that the mammoths depicted were Manny’s late family and himself: Manny’s wife and child were hunted by humans, leaving Manny alive and embittered at the world for his loss. The baby reaches out to the painting, comforting Manny in that he lets go of his bitterness at having lost his wife and child.

A Herd

"That's what you do in a herd."
―Diego[src]
Herd running from underground lava eruptions

They crossed an underground lava field.

Further on, the group grows closer to Glacier Pass when they reach a lava field, which they must cross. Diego nearly falls into the lava but Manny saves him, falling into the lava pit himself as the ice he is standing on breaks off. Manny is launched out of the lava pit unharmed, launched out with the ice he stood on. Diego, in wonderment at Manny’s actions, asks why Manny risked his life to save him, Manny replying that such sacrifices where what herds did. Meanwhile, Soto and his pack plan for the ambush on Manny, aided by Diego.

Ambush

That night, while settling down by campfire, Diego begins to see the error of his ways in betraying Manny. After the others fall asleep, Scrat appears on the scene with his acorn, planning to thaw it from the ice, baking it instead by mistake into a popcorn. The group continued on, reaching Half Peak, where Diego, feeling remorse for betraying Manny's trust, confesses his plans to Manny, which angers the mammoth. Manny pins Diego to a rock wall, intending to kill him for his deception, but Diego, having had a change of heart, agrees to help them escape the pack since they can't talk themselves out of it.

Leading the pack away from Manny, who they intended to ambush, Sid slides off on two pieces of bark with a decoy baby made of snow; the pack, however, catches up with Manny, who knocks them away with a log, save for one, named Zeke, who Sid stomps into a hollow tree. Soto catches up with them and corners Manny, asking Diego to help bring the mammoth down; Diego defects from Soto and defends Manny at his own expense as Soto brings Diego down, wounding him. Soto then turns to Manny, intending to attack him alone but luckily Diego used his last strength and jumped in the way and stopped Soto. Sid and the baby appear just before Soto could finish Diego off, distracting him and Manny in vengeance, knocks Soto into an ice wall, which jars loose a number of hanging icicles, lethally impaling him. The other sabers, Oscar and Lenny, saw their leader killed and flee the scene.

Happy Ending

The Ice Trio migrating south past the sunset

The Sub-Zero trio are finally heading south at last.

Manny, Sid, and the baby are safe; Diego, however, is severely injured and appears to succumb to his wounds, leaving Manny and Sid to find the humans by themselves. The two find the humans, who ready themselves to attack when Manny produces Roshan, safe and sound. Grateful for Manny's returning Roshan, Runar calls off the attack and bestows a beaded necklace to Manny in thanks before leaving with the baby. Manny and Sid leave as they find Diego alive and well. The three become a herd and decide to head south together.

Epilogue

Scrat making Volcano Erupt

Scrat made the volcano erupt.

20,000 years later in the future, Scrat, frozen in a block of ice, ends up on the shores of a tropical island. As the ice slowly melts, an acorn that was also frozen in the same ice block is washed away. Scrat then finds a coconut and tries to stomp it into the ground, only to accidentally trigger a volcanic eruption. Stunned once again, Scrat laughed nervously at the screen while the film ends.

Appearances

Characters

Species

Voice Actors

Additional Voices

  • Frank Welker (uncredited)
  • Michael Bell (uncredited)
  • Kimberly Brooks (uncredited)
  • Cam Clarke (uncredited)
  • Billy West (uncredited)
  • Bob Bergen (uncredited)
  • John Cygan (uncredited)
  • Jan Rabson (uncredited)
  • Jess Harnell (uncredited)
  • Jim Ward (uncredited)
  • April Winchell (uncredited)
  • Tress MacNeille (uncredited)
  • Jack Angel (uncredited)
  • Bill Farmer (uncredited)
  • Russi Taylor (uncredited)
  • Danny Mann (uncredited)
  • Darin De Paul (uncredited)
  • Paul Eiding (uncredited)
  • Sandy Fox (uncredited)
  • Holly Gauthier-Frankel (uncredited)
  • Marsha Kramer (uncredited)
  • Lex Lang (uncredited)
  • Jennifer Hale (uncredited)
  • David McCharen (uncredited)
  • Bobbi Page (uncredited)
  • Paul Pape (uncredited)
  • Peter Renaday (uncredited)
  • Michelle Ruff (uncredited)
  • Skip Stellrecht (uncredited)
  • Catherine Taber (uncredited)
  • Brian Tochi (uncredited)
  • Ezra Weisz (uncredited)

Deleted scenes

Ice Age Original Poster

Original Ice Age Poster featuring Sylvia, Jennifer and Rachel along with Manny, Sid, Diego, and Scrat

Originally, Sid was trying to avoid another sloth named Sylvia out of commitment. He manages to lose her by putting her in the path of some migrating Glyptodon, who unknowingly carry her off when she got caught on their backs. Later, Sid makes it look like Diego had killed him, but she saw that he was faking, so she deserted him in anger and told Diego to eat the sloth. This segment was still used in the movie, but was used for Sid to avoid the two brontotheres who were still after him, as they fell for the trick. It was kept in the storybook version, however. The deleted scenes can be viewed separately, or in Nutty Movie Mode, both of which are included on Disc 1 of the two-disc Special Edition DVD.

Soundtrack

The film score was composed by David Newman, this is the only Ice Age soundtrack that he composed, the other ones were made by John Powell and John Debney.

Reception

Critical Response

Reviews were generally positive from critics. The films holds a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 "mixed or average reviews" on Metacritic. However, audiences loved the film even more than the critics. The film also earned an "A" from CinemaScore.

Box Office

The film made $46,312,454 on its opening weekend debuting at #1. It made $176,387,405 domestically and $206,869,731 elsewhere for a worldwide total of $383,257,136 worldwide.[2] It became the 8th highest grossing film in 2002.[3]

Awards

Ice Age received 28 nominations including an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.

Trivia

  • While critics did give the film positive reviews, the audience loved the film even more.
  • It was a box office hit when it was released in 2002.
  • Grossed $383 million worldwide against it's $59 million budget.
  • Only film in the Ice Age franchise where David Newman composed the musical score.
  • Is the highest-rated Ice Age film with a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 on Meatcritic.
  • Often considered to be the best Ice Age film.
  • The film's massive success helped launch Blue Sky Studios into a successful animation studio.
  • Was originally going to be a dramatic, non-comedic hand-drawn animated film directed by Don Bluth, but was given to Blue Sky and they turned it into the computer-animated film that we all know.
  • 20th Century Fox would only take this film if it was turned into a comedy.
  • Many love this film for it's heartwarming story and it's well-written and likable characters.
  • David Newman also composed Anastasia, another 20th Century Fox animated film.
  • Every actor was encouraged to improvise as much as they can to keep the animation spontaneous.
  • This was the only film to use Blue Sky Studios' old "blue dash" logo as it only appears on trailers and posters (even on the poster to Robots), as later with the release of Robots, it would use the iconic one (the "blue circle shield") logo.
  • The only Ice Age film to not come out the same year as a Pixar film.
  • Many of the animals appearing in the sequels to the film were designed initially for the first Ice Age but were cut.
  • This is the only Ice Age movie to have the humans.
  • This is the only Ice Age movie to be THX Digitally Mastered on DVD.
  • This was the only Ice Age movie to be released on VHS.
  • During a scene before the sliding on ice, there was some foreshadowing of the future Ice Age movies like the fish for The Meltdown, a dinosaur for Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Sid’s ancestors for Continental Drift, and the UFO for Collision Course.
  • This is the only Ice Age film and the only film by Blue Sky Studios to have the "Twentieth Century Fox Presents" credit.
  • This is also the only Ice Age film to have a post-credits scene. To date, it is the shortest post-credit scene. This post-credit scene has no indoor scenes, no outdoor scenes, no characters and no locations, leaving everything else on a black background. Also, the screaming sound to Scrat is heard throughout the post-credit scene and only seen on 35mm "open-matte" film scan prints.

See also

References

External Links

Ice Age
Films
Ice Age (2002) • Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) • Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) • Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) • Ice_Age: Collision Course (2016)
Characters
ScratMannySidDiegoEllieCrashEddiePeachesShira
Shorts
Gone Nutty (2002) • No Time For Nuts (2006) • Surviving Sid (2008) • Scrat's Continental Crack-up (2010) • Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011) • Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe (2015)
Other clips
Falling for ScratteBuck: From Easel to Weasel
Video games
Ice AgeThe MeltdownDawn of the DinosaursContinental Drift
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